Have doing exposures these few days as I need to go yo the university and I return home totally collapsing and crying, why my mind doesn’t want to release the thoughts?
Our brains evolved over millions of years to protect us from danger and keep us safe. Hearing the crack of a branch in the forest and making the split second decision to run for it is what kept our ancestors alive long enough to allow us to exist today. With OCD our brains are continuing that longstanding job of keeping us safe by looking for threats, but they're misfiring, creating fear and guilt, and generating intrusive thoughts and images in a misinformed effort to keep us safe from a threat that isnt there. Its why OCD feels so real, because to that primal part of our brain it is. Its also why our brain doesn't want to let these thoughts go, because it sees them as a mortal danger to us. Its also what makes you and every other OCD sufferer so so brave. To get through it you have to learn to sit with these very real thoughts and feelings that are screaming at you to respond with the same urgency they would have shouted at our ancestors in order to get them to run from a Tiger. Really its genuinely incredible how brave people with OCD are when doing these exposures. It would be like asking any regular person to stand completely still and do nothing while a Tiger lunges at them, thats how brave you're being.
@FightOCDwithme Thank you very much for your kind words 🙏
What a great explanation! The best I've ever read on this community board. Might I add that ERP therapy may make us feel worse before we see improvement. Simply put, OCD is fighting to keep you on its treadmill. But it WILL get better if we work on it. Recovery tends to be messy, not linear.
I just started working on my first exposure today with my therapist after screening and creating the lists for several weeks now. We did an exposure together and now I feel 100x worse than I did coming in. I won’t go too into detail but it involved looking at a VERY gory image that had to do with my fear of natural disasters. I called my mom and talked with her and she was shocked and wondered how in the hell that would help me! I agree. Did any of y’all feel this way when you first started or is this just not the right kind of therapy for me?
I have contamination OCD that causes me to excessively wash my hands/clean items with disinfectant wipes. I know I just need to start with small exposures but how do I do that without spiraling? I tried a while back by just touching the outside of my dishwasher and not washing my hands after and it led to me being unable to even exist in my house. I basically lived on my couch for three weeks as it was the only 'safe' space that I had not touched with my dirty hands. I had to take a week off work to clean my house to make it somewhat liveable. I still haven't got round to cleaning everything though so things like my kitchen are still no-go zones that I don't enter. I just don't know how to start ERP without it making everything worse. Any advice would be appreciated. I am not seeing a therapist at the moment due to financial constraints.
Hi, I don’t know what to do anymore Pocd kills me I had many themes before but this theme is the hardest for me. I’m tired. I’m on therapy and meds but I barely do erp . I don’t have a reason I just don’t want to do it but today I will because I have to. I’m taking meds and they help with the anxiety for sure. But the obsessive part is still here . I’m almost 2 months on it (40 mg on Prozac) but I’m still super obsessed like I can have thoughts 24/7 every second of the day and not leave me alone. I have experienced a thought right now for a month + . It’s a thought to do compulsion/urge. My therapist says to let go and gives me tips how to she also tell me to do more erp. But I have this thought to do compulsion for more then month. Im scared what if I don’t have ocd the thought is 24/7. Do you think I should switch meds im so tired.
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